Tag Archives: opioid epidemic

Meet Our Candidates: Jo Craycraft for State Senator, LD 1

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The time to fight back — and fight forward — for reproductive justice is fast approaching. The stakes are high in this year’s state election, with candidates for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and other races on the ballot. The Arizona general election will be held November 6, 2018, with early voting beginning on October 10. Voters need to be registered by October 9 to cast their ballots. Reproductive health has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who put our health and our rights first. Get to know them now in our series of “Meet Our Candidates” interviews, and make your voice heard in 2018!

[J]o Craycraft is running for the Arizona Senate seat in Legislative District 1, which is home to communities in the Verde Valley, Prescott Valley, and surrounding areas such as Prescott and Dewey-Humboldt. While the roots of these districts are rural and proud, the policies its representatives have supported over the last decade have stripped this region of resources and neglected the impact of the unregulated industry of sober living homes on the opioid epidemic.

“Arizonans are more engaged than ever in stewardship of their great state.”

Ms. Craycraft is running against Sen. Karen Fann, who is seeking re-election and has historically toed the GOP party line on issues important to Planned Parenthood. This district is also home to Rep. David Stringer, whose racist comments documented on social media seem emblematic of many of the area’s other lawmakers, such as U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, who was recently targeted in an ad by six of his nine siblings for peddling conspiracy theories on social media and failing to represent the interests of his rural congressional district, which overlaps with LD 1.

Bolstered by an impressive resume and an even more impressive drive to serve all the people of this district, Ms. Craycraft was generous enough to take a break from campaigning and answer our questions on September 17, 2018.

Please tell us a little about your background and why you’re running for office right now in this political climate.

After a career that includes 30 years in law enforcement — 10 years as a police officer and 20 years in the FBI — an MBA and law degree, and owning a private investigation agency, I am now seeking to represent the people of Arizona’s Legislative District 1. My deep understanding of the law and history of meeting and interacting with people all along the socio-economic spectrum have informed my approach to common-sense and compassionate lawmaking. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • With all of the shenanigans that have transpired in North Carolina over the years (their racially discriminatory voting debacles especially), it’s nice to be able to highlight the state for doing something positive for a change. North Carolina has managed to close its black-white maternal death gap. This is amazing and so important. (Vox)
  • I’m sure we all remember (and would like to forget) the Jan Brewer era? Well, friendly reminder: Arizona Already Tried What the GOP Wants to Do to Medicaid. It Was a Disaster. (Slate)
  • Our nomination for sentence of the week: “Whatever maternity care his mother got when she was pregnant with him helped him grow into the healthy, thriving, intolerable jerkoff he is today.” HA! (XX Factor)
  • Christian crisis pregnancy centers in Illinois are suing the state because they want to keep lying to vulnerable pregnant women about their options. Let’s hope they catch the ‘L’ they deserve. (Chicago Tribune)
  • The majority of women who have abortions are already mothers. They share their stories about why they chose to terminate their pregnancies. (Elle)
  • Parents are doing a mediocre job teaching teens about love, sex, and the misogyny that permeates our culture. Eighty-seven percent of teenage girls have experienced harassment, abuse, or assault. This is not OK. (NBC News)
  • Due to the fact that we have a thin-skinned narcissist with the restraint and civility of a toddler in the White House, there are obviously A LOT of concerns about national politics. However, we can’t lose sight of the fact that local politics have a much greater effect on most of our daily lives — especially for women. NARAL President Kaylie Hanson Long details why. (Think Progress)
  • Literally ALL the medical groups hate Trumpcare. Have they no compassion for the rich people who would be further enriched by GOP tax cuts?!? (NBC News)
  • Wow — a majority of GOP voters largely support Obamacare’s birth control mandate. Surprising! (The Hill)
  • While conservative politicians are doing everything within their power to ensure women have less access to birth control to prevent unintended pregnancy and less access to abortion to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, the foster care system is bursting at the seams with child victims of the opioid crisis. I personally have spent a great deal of time looking for SOME kind of evidence that the “pro-life” politicians who seek to restrict women’s rights are also advocating somehow for these children. Unfortunately I’m at a loss. Their privileged, traditional, nuclear families aren’t fostering them. They aren’t publicly advocating for them vocally. They aren’t trying to bring about meaningful change to the foster care system. Oddly, it seems like the “pro-life” advocacy only applies to CURRENT, not former, residents of a womb. Sad. (Mother Jones)
  • Well, this is heart-wrenching and tragic: In developing nations, 214 million women want to prevent pregnancy but have no contraception. How will poverty ever be eradicated if women have no control over their fertility, limited ability to prioritize their existing children and give them better opportunities, and no meaningful path toward economic independence? (XX Factor)